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By
ETHAN CUHULINN
Jamie Kennedy stars as a
rich, spoiled young man from Malibu, California,
who seems confused about who he really is: Is he
white and suburban and wealthy, an urban rapper
wannabe, or is he truly the freshest gangsta rap
artist around? What's obvious is that he's
obnoxious and dense, and is destroying his
father's chances of becoming the next governor of
California. So, what's a loving father (a pudgy
Ryan O'Neal) to do? To avoid any embarrassment his
Machiavellian campaign manager (Blair Underwood)
hires two trained actors (Anthony Anderson and
Taye Diggs) to pose as "real life gangstaz" in
order to help his son find his inner white child.
Regina Hall stars as Kennedy's potential love
interest.
There are flashes of real irreverence, making fun
of the gangsta subculture, spoiled white kids,
political campaigns, race and even Middle Eastern
terrorism. But this is a Hollywood movie, designed
in many ways to promote the career of WB star
Kennedy. So it ends up sentimentally and with a
bang -- I mean the literally; a house explodes and
I guess that's as close to as funny finale as the
unimaginative committee of screenwriters (it took
four) could come up with. Anderson and Diggs have
the most satisfying bits, especially when they
filter everything through acting class jargon. But
Kennedy is often painfully unfunny and his
character unlikable. Even his gangsta accent
sounds repulsive -- more white trash Southern than
South Central.
The screen-specific audio commentary is by the
improbably named director John Whitesell, stars
Kennedy, Anderson and Hall, and writers and
producers Fax Bahr and Adam Small. They're all
thrilled with their film. More than you will be.
Spread on both sides of the disc, other extras
include 11 deleted scenes (with or without
comments), the film's theatrical trailer and
promos for WB's "The Jamie Kennedy Experience" and
"All About the Andersons," which star Kennedy and
Anderson's respectively.
The film is available in both widescreen and full
screen versions.
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